Lyrics
There are eight tracks on the album. Strung together they run 51:24. Two are instrumentals: the first track, Lime Tree Afternoon, and the last track, Lime Tree Reprise. The other six songs are sketches. Their chronology is fractured. They are interrelated, circling back on each other. They do not comprise a linear narrative. They conjure absences not closures. Emily and George drink gin on their porch, bring their teak croquet mallets to lawn parties, travel to Ngapali beach, ride their horses, congratulate themselves on their place and power, and, through train windows, gaze at the fields on fire. And they steal, and so do we.
Lime Tree Afternoon (4:40)
Mandalay (5:10)
In Imagination (Secret World) (9:02)
Blink (6:10)
Another Life (6:46)
Blue Cabinet (8:22)
Outside the Lines (6:20)
Lime Tree Reprise (4:51)
Track 1
Lime Tree Afternoon (4:40)
Track 2
Mandalay (5:10)
Gin and cricket
Sex and coffee
The girls all smile
By the lime tree
Guns and money
Pipes and poppy
We’ve never been so fuckin happy
In Mandalay we play
We play all day
In Mandalay we bring them hope
Shiny bibles for the local folk
Mandalay, Mandalay
Tamarind and curry leaf
Will cure our yawning disbelief
Tamarind and curry spice
Will fix what’s missing in our lives
In the sun
We’re having fun
In the sun
In Mandalay we play
Gin and cricket, sex and coffee
In Mandalay we play
Guns and money, pipes and poppy
Mandalay, Mandalay
We’ll eat your spice
And your stories too
Take them home for barbecue
The world our marble
Blue and glowing
Inside our cabinet
Kept for showing
Our gift to you is law
And this might come as news
We’ll let you sew
Let you sew
Let you sew
Our riding boots
Track 3
In Imagination (Secret World) (9:02)
On my beach
The sun shines
The birds fly
Waves roll
They roll in
You sit
A still life
And look out
With your green eyes
On the green sea
You swim in imagination
On the red train
Workers wave
From a burning field
Their sad faith
In their gods revealed
You read
Your lines of words
A soaring trip
On paper wings
You swim in imagination
But if your secret world
Gets scary
Remember
I told you
My ready heart
My steady hands
My reaching arms
will hold you
On my porch in Mandalay
The servants dress
In empire whites
They fan the air
In the dying light
Your pen draws
The evening sky
As you track the sun
In its perfect line
You swim in imagination
But if your secret world
Gets scary
Remember
I told you
My ready heart
My steady hands
My reaching arms
will hold you
On my beach
The sun shines
The birds fly
Waves roll
They roll in
You sit
A still life
And look out
From the warm sand
With your green eyes
On the green sea
You swim in imagination
Track 4
Blink (6:10)
Winter is a highwire
Whiskey and regret
Spring a drizzle
Of hopes unmet
Summer lingers
It buzzes in my ear
Reminding me you are gone
I’m still here
I blink to see
What could be
I blink in the dark
Let’s not be apart
I blink with my heart
I blink
To see what could be
The devil sipped a tonic
And leaned against the bar
The barmaid poured whiskey
And lit a fat cigar
You wore your boots
With silver points
They clicked across the floor
Each step a vote for leaving
You waited at the door
And blinked to see
If runnin
Could set you free
You blinked in the dark
Let’s not be apart
You blinked with your heart
You blinked
To see what could be
The tea is in the garden
They’re putting out the cakes
The headman has a crystal
He fills with gin and shakes
They ask about your horses
And say they’ll write you soon
They wonder why they’re heartsick
On this dressy afternoon
They blink to see
The old world
Across the sea
They blink in the dark
Because they’re apart
They blink with their hearts
They blink
To see what could be
Track 5
Another Life (6:46)
Horses in the field
At the end of May
Ferries in the channel
They’re sailing away
Today
We make a pair
A pair of rings
And a whispered prayer
There’s a boat at the dock
With iron in the hull
A magnet for our dreams
An island in the stream
We will make our grace
Face to face
We’ll have a place
Another life
Another life
Another life
Another life
Another life
What we do here
Is in anger
Taking us down
Into the ground
To a kingdom
Dreamed by barons and earls
And devils
Countesses with pearls
Pearls and diamonds
I want my own
I want my own empire
I want empire
We will make our grace
Face to face
We’ll have a place
Another life
Another life
Another life
Another life
Another life
Our shadows overlap
On the lawn
Yeah on the lawn
Gin in hand, we belong
Where the rain falls
On jungle leaves
And the people will sing to us
On summer eves
I want a life
I can sit back and see
The Orient
The Orient
Bengali nights
The Orient
The Orient
The Orient
We will make our grace
Face to face
We’ll have a place
Another life
Another life
Another life
Track 6
Blue Cabinet (8:22)
She’s gliding through the market
Like a crow flies to its wire
She has spices from the islands
From Shanghai and Morocco and the mountains
In the kitchen
In her cabinet
The blue cabinet
The blue cabinet
She travels to Bologna in the winter
She likes opera and movies that never come here
She brings back things in boxes
And skinny bars of chocolates
And stories
The blue cabinet
The blue cabinet
The blue cabinet
The blue cabinet
We read our books from faraway
Where people play with fire everyday
Dance on charcoal for their lovers
Who tell them tales of Mandalay
Who stay until they slip away
They slip away
Now the loon
Is in the woods again
I close my book
And wonder
Just how you’ve been
Are you lucky
Are you
The day is slow
We feel the heat
The summer seems incomplete
We pour a glass of anisette
And you reach for the blue handle
of the blue cabinet
And you say
I’ve got a story for you
I’ve got a story for you
I’ve got a story for you
I’ve got a story for you
Track 7
Outside the Lines (6:20)
Don’t call it grace
When I’m up on the wire
Don’t call it grace
When I go a little higher
Don’t call it grace
Cause you’d be a liar
Don’t call it grace
As much as you
Connect your dots
Outside the lines
Is what I’ve got
As much as you
Prefer a plot
Outside the lines
Is all I’ve got
Don’t say my hand
Is a sure one to hold
Don’t make my art
A feat to behold
Don’t think my heart
Has never been sold
Don’t call it grace
As much as you
Connect your dots
Outside the lines
Is what I’ve got
As much as you
Prefer a plot
Outside the lines
Is all I’ve got
You feel me warm
But I feel me cold
You say that I’m
A story to be told
Don’t call my bluff
Cause I’ll probably fold
Don’t call it grace
As much as you
Connect your dots
Outside the lines
Is what I’ve got
As much as you
Prefer a plot
Outside the lines
Is all I’ve got
Don’t call it grace
When the teak forests fall
Don’t call it grace
When the ships take it all
Don’t call it grace
Like it’s good for us all
Don’t call it grace
As much as you
Connect your dots
Outside the lines
Is what I’ve got
As much as you
Prefer a plot
Outside the lines
Is all I’ve got
Track 8
Lime Tree Reprise (4:51)